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Weekly Contest #280
To a beige office building of twenty-five floors, on a quiet Saturday morning with maybe fifty people in the whole high-rise, approaches an electrician in a baseball cap. She hands her papers to the security guard at the front desk, who calls up to the 17th floor to confirm the contract. The security guard only briefly notes the name patch on her powder-blue coveralls: “Jen”. A name just common enough, and not her real name.For this electrician is really an industrial spy, coming to steal security data from an AI company specializing in heal...
Weekly Contest #279
The mail carrier looked at me with fear, and I grew suspicious. The cashier at McDonald's hesitated for many moments when I mentioned my name, and I knew I was onto something. The teller at the bank counted my paycheck money five times before handing it to me, and my suspicion transformed into certainty.But before then, doubt filled every crevice of my mind. For years I tried to make sense of the world and my place in it, and came up empty. Have you ever looked at the world, really looked at it? It makes no sense. Zero. Take the English...
Shortlisted for Contest #272 ⭐️
They came to hurt us again. Not just me. They bring a machine specifically for this purpose. They came to hurt The Doctor and little Lulubelle, and the transient ghosts who sometimes occupy the cells. The first time they turned the machine on, I didn’t hear the screams of the others, only my own. The second time I heard them all, but mixed together. The third time I could hear each one, discreetly, distinctly.This is the fourth time they’ve come. The first time it was just one man, carrying the machine like a child carrying a watermelon, set...
Shortlisted for Contest #268 ⭐️
The Honorable Judge Harold Bribar strode to the bench bearing a coy smile. The court knew that smile well, as did millions watching on viewscreens all over Mars. As did tens of millions back on Earth who wouldn’t get the feed for another hour or so. They also knew the arch of his thick gray eyebrows, the well-trimmed salt-and-pepper hair he’d gracefully let recede, the petite spectacles he wore when reading, and the mild way he cleared his throat to bring the whole courtroom to attention. In offense to all known theories of jurisprudence, Ju...
Weekly Contest #266
In a basement, in the dim light, in a home for hungry artists. Lies a painter, with a passion, and the will to spill her thoughts out.See the easel in the dim light. See the palette by her right side. A lack of blue upon the palette, a hue the artist chose to banish. No morning skies or crystal lakes for this aesthetic’s special tastes. No gray as well. No pale or silver in her sights. No shades between the starkest black and white. Instead, red. Red for blood, for vile streaks. Every hue of scarlett: ...
Weekly Contest #265
The intercom system didn’t work, for a start. If it had, it would have broadcast a recorded message regarding the history of the Aztec Empire: what was known about Aztec culture, fashion, system of government, and cuisine. This message would have prepared the six passengers onboard for what they were about to see while their pod traversed the dark “time tunnel” bringing them to the distant past.But the system didn’t work, and so broadcast wailing static and jumbled speech. Only the occasional word proved decipherable through syllabic structu...
Weekly Contest #262
To a field of juneberry and hawthorn bushes, between a dense forest and the beaches of the great water humans call Superior, the goldfinches return. They fly in groups, settling on the scrub bushes, taking in the home they’ve missed while wintering in warmer climes.As each flock trickles in, they join a rising chorus, one great song only paused for sunset. Let’s listen:Home home home!Home to love, to cool and safetyHome to seeds so tough yet tastyHome to song as day beginsHome to nests and warmth thereinEach arriving group brings their own m...
Weekly Contest #260
Once upon a time, in a kingdom most absurd, lived a Princess named Unrelia who possessed the power of the fourth wall. So whenever her parents, the King and Queen Narrat, tried to betrothe her to some goodly prince, she would turn to an oblique angle and say something like “Can you believe this folks? My parents are positively medieval!” as if there was an audience just out of sight, invisible to everyone else. Such was her confidence in these pronunciations that no one ever challenged or interrupted her. And those good princes, and their fa...
Weekly Contest #259
I'd like to thank your Reverend, the honorable Beau Smith, for inviting me to speak at your beautiful church. And I want to thank you, the good people of Quinwood, for allowing me into this house of the Lord. I will try to hold myself to half an hour, if you can stand me for that long. But I have been known to meander.As you likely know, we have a celebrity of far greater illustriousness than myself in attendance, right here in the front row, a state senator representing this district up in Atlanta. Senator William Weathers. Good day to you ...
Weekly Contest #253
I’m surprised you didn’t ask about the Olympics first. “What is it like to meet all those athletes? What are your favorite moments from the interviews? How did it feel to race the sprinters in mock competition? Do you think it’s fair that you’re not allowed to compete?” Those are the questions I get asked the most. Oh and then you could ask if I actually like Vitaflakes, the cereal of victory! The world needs that question answered again. Ha!Or you could inquire about the arcade games that bear my face. Gamers still ask me, ironically, if I ...
Weekly Contest #249
Near a city on the coast, at the outskirts of that city, at a crossroads by a small town, in a tavern without a name, on a shabby, straight-backed stool at the far left end of the bar, sat a tall, slender man in a lavender suit.“How much for a Jack and Coke?” The man asked the portly bartender. His tone had a fake-innocent quality to it, like he’d never ordered such a drink, or perhaps any drink, ever in his life.“Five bucks.”“What if, in lieu of those few, petty, dollars, I showed you something? Something guaranteed to impress and amaze. So...
Weekly Contest #247
The following journal was found in a repository room of the British Museum, translated from the original Spanish into English by the scholar Maxwell Soverington in the 18th century. The document was misplaced in a file where it remained missing until 1981. The translation is presented here, with section breaks added to distinguish separate, non-dated entries. It is unknown how this text made it to England. 13 September, in the year of our lord 1519It is on this date that Diego and I, along with a few others, received the grace of Hernán Cort...
Weekly Contest #245
Across the galaxy, some six-hundred and forty light years from our own blue planet, sits a small, rust-and-green world as populous and strange as our own. As we zoom in on this planet, we pass through its red-tinted atmosphere, to a range of gray mountains surrounding a steaming, green swamp. Notice how many creatures fill the sky. A great host of birds, many of them as smart as you and I, coast from one mountaintop city to another. They have built a civilization comparable to our classical era, though if you go by their social media, f...
Weekly Contest #243
A family takes a trip to a park on the first day of spring: dirt trails, a candy-colored play area, the laughter of children, high sun peeking through tall oak trees. The mother had visited this park before, many years ago, but had forgotten. As she watches her children climb the yellow jungle gym, scale the wooden mockup pirate ship, giggle as they swing on the swing set, she is reminded of that earlier trip, and that memory pulls her into the past. Now this mother watches other children playing on that very same pirate ship decades before....
Weekly Contest #241
I draw a line down the middle of the notebook page. I aim for precision, but the line swerves in my unsteady hand. On the top left I write “Dad”, cross it out, write “Father.” At the top right I put “Mother.” Soon enough I’ll place my own name under one of the columns, take my position on one side of that crooked barrier. Because last week mom called the four of us into the kitchen. She was sitting at the table, a table older than me with dark stains so deep in the white plastic they’re part of it now. Dad was there too, pacing around, looki...
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